


An Exploration of Honor & the Social and Legal System in Rome

by plutodolohov



Series: school work [1]
Category: Original Work
Genre: America, Gen, History, Honor, Latin, Law, Other, Roman History, american legal system, can you tell i have no hope?, legal systems in rome, social systems in rome, society, the fall of america
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-05
Updated: 2021-02-05
Packaged: 2021-03-17 06:22:19
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,165
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29220912
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/plutodolohov/pseuds/plutodolohov
Summary: My final paper for my Capstone Latin class. Written February 4, 2020.
Series: school work [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2145501





	1. Chapter 1

**Introduction**  
The ancient Romans have always been a large influence to the world, with many governments and societies basing themselves off of them. Some of the biggest countries in the world, such as the United States and Great Britain, have their legal systems based in Roman law. However, one of the most interesting things that has trickled down from the vast Roman period is not just the legal system: it was also the social system, albeit a watered-down version, that has passed down through time to then lightly be sprinkled in current society. While the legal system in Rome and its lasting impressions through time are prevalent and will be discussed within this paper, the social system of Rome and its impact, if any, upon modern society will also be looked at, looking specifically within the era from when Sulla was declared dictator to when Emperor Marcus Aurelius’ reign ended. Specifically, the system used in the United States mirrors the system that was used in ancient Rome, which ultimately delegates the United States to a fiery demise due to the social and legal systems in place, much like the Romans. 

**Early Rome & Early America**  
To begin, let us look at the legal and social system within Rome. There are many social systems that rose and went, but when Sulla became dictator in circa 81 BC, the legal system was well underway. According to Livy, Romulus, at the start of Rome, ordained that there be “twelve lictors” and “appointed a hundred senators” as well1. The lictors, who in time became the Praetorian guard were a group of axe-wielding men who carried executions out on the order of the king, whereas the senators were, at least in the time of Romulus, were the second in command to the kings who ruled, almost like a pipeline to the ruled’s voices. There were also the Twelve Tables, which were the Roman Kingdom’s attempt at law. While much has been lost to time, the parts that do remain are much like the Code of Hammurabi in their simple retaliative nature; laws against slander — “If any person has sung or composed against another person a SONG ( _carmen_ ) such as was causing slander or insult.... he shall be clubbed to death” — as well as marriage — “Marriage shall not take place between a patrician and a plebeian” — also existed, however, and one can only presume that the Tables contained a detailed law over most aspects of life, if not all2. The question then becomes a question of motive: how were these laws created? Out of necessity or out of a concept of honour? The distinction can be seen as correct when looking only at the retaliative portions of the Twelve Tables, for the motive of necessity seems clear when thinking of primitive laws such as “Whatever the People has last ordained shall be held as binding by law;” after all, the early Romans were mostly an agrarian society ruled by a king who settled almost all disputes, internal and external3. However, when looking at the scope of the laws as a whole, we can see the motive to be stronger than necessity, even from the few that have survived. Due to the majority of the laws describing extra-legal affairs such as marriage, the behaviour of women, and oath-making, it can be said that the motive behind the laws was not just a necessity but a larger, more abstract need — such as honour. Honour to the Romans in the Kings period would have been more about the chaos that reigned from the creation of a new city being settled and a new order placed down; the settler’s mindset would explain why there are many laws that seem to span a wide variety of behaviours. Honour would have been central to the Roman individual, especially the men; the behaviours found to be honourable can be seen in the mythology that remains from that time, with the stories of the gods often emulated by the men in Rome. Roman honour was well established through the oral stories of the people, such as the Aeneid. In the _Iliad_ , Aeneas is described as a pious man who is worthy of godly intervention: “But wherefore should he, a guiltless man, suffer woes vainly by reason of sorrows that are not his own?—whereas he ever giveth acceptable gifts to the gods that hold broad heaven. Nay, come, let us head him forth from out of death.”4 The fact that Neptune, a god himself, finds Aeneas worthy of saving, calling him “a guiltless man,” makes Aeneas an honourable man in the eyes of the Romans. Since the _Iliad_ was one of the oral stories that the Romans would have passed down through generations and modelled their lives after, the honour that Aeneas holds in the eyes of the gods would have attempted to be emulated by the citizens in the early Roman era. Thus, honour plays a large part in the legal system as the Romans as it helped them create a structure for the beginning of their city.  


Even though these laws were in effect thousands of years ago, a parallel can be seen in American society. Honour played a large role in early America much the same way that the Romans utilize it: the laws and behaviours of the time were based on honour and keeping the chaos to a minimum. For example, many early articles of law that were written placed restrictions on most aspects of life, including marriage, a payment system and general behaviour. However, American honour stemmed more from a desire of freedom more than a desire for stability, unlike the Romans. The Declaration of Independence claims “a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation,” which implies that what caused the need for separation is not so much the taxing and the physical attacks so much as the metaphysical attack upon the colonists.5 By not respecting the colonists’ wishes and belittling them, thereby lowering their honor, the early Americans felt the revolution was necessary. The Roman mythology also played a role in the ideas that the early revolutionists believed in — the mythos changed, but the same ideas of piety and loyalty can be seen in the stories of George Washington. The _Columbian Reader_ , a textbook utilized in nineteenth century American schools, stated “the character of General Washington will be transmitted to posterity, and the memory of his virtues, while patriotism and virtue are held sacred among men, will remain undiminished.”6 Even after about 200 years, George Washington is viewed as a god among men for his efforts to the revolutionary cause. The man became the mythos of America, serving the same purpose Aeneas would have: showing people the morals they out to live by, idealizing the person in question and thereby presenting the best and probably hyperbolized version of them. Thus, the parallel situations between early Rome and America can be seen to have been prompted by honor and to have used a mythos to perpetuate the honourable traits they wanted within the ideal form of their society. 

**Roman Republic and Empire & Modern America**  
Returning to Rome, by the time Sulla took power as dictator in 81 BC, the Roman kings had long been overturned and the Roman Republic had taken power, changing with it the systems in place. The legal system was now dominated by the senators, who shared power with the consuls and other offices. There were many offices, many of which were on the _cursus honorum_ — the “path to honour” — which was a path leading to the highest office of power possible in the Republic, which was consul and/or censor. Simplified down to the essentials, the offices which featured on the _cursus honorum_ were, from the lowest to the highest rank possible, _questor_ , _tribune_ , _praetor_ , and finally _consul_.7 Technically, censor was seen as the last office to take in the Republic era in order to complete the _cursus honorum_ , but many consuls were reelected many times due to popularity or corruption. The interesting thing to note is the name of the path: it is not simply a political path, or a _cursus legis_ , but one of honor, _honorum_. The implication that a legal path and an honourable path are not mutually dependent reveals honor was more important to the Romans, even if that meant breaking the law. There were also many words that rose to prominence during this period. While there are many words in Latin that can be translated as “honor” in English, within the Latin context, each word objectifies a particular aspect of Roman honor. For example, the word _auctorias_ can be better translated as a sort of spiritual authority, where the spiritual is what is ancestry and customarily expected of a Roman citizen. _Auctoritas_ was also inheritable, due to the word holding with the honor one gets from a noble family name. Cicero uses the word to refer to the power of the Senate, writing of the _auctoritas patrum_ , or the power of the Senate over the Roman people; after all, seats in the Senate were often passed down in families.8 The inclusion of the word _patrum_ aligns the honor and the role of the _paterfamilias_ , or the “man of the house,” as it were, to the Senate i.e. the Senate is the _paterfamilias_ to all of Rome. Even the motto Rome is remembered for, _senātus populusque rōmānus_ , was used to inculcate honor in its people, aligning loyalty to the power of the Senate with the honor of being a good citizen. The rise of these honour-words, or rather, the rise in the use of these words (for there is no way to know whether these words were coined in the Republican period or before) can be attributed to the relative stability that Rome experienced during this era. The stability allowed for more people to be less focused on the mundane, more survivalist parts of life and instead spend time creating a philosophy and thought-school on matters that intrigued them. The rise in prominence of these words mirrors a time of stability and a time when honour began to become more multifaceted than simply a medium of peace. Therefore, honor was used as a construct, due to the words in Latin being nuanced, and they helped contribute to the distinction in social class in a meritocratic society.  


The Roman Republic included some of the most influential philosophers and historians, and influenced the Founding Fathers of the United States. Parallels can be seen between the legal system in the United States and the Roman’s ancient system. The _cursus honorum_ , while not called that nor formally defined in the United States, is very much present: the path a politician usually takes is from state official to senator or other Congressperson to appointed in national government to president. The higher up in the political ladder one goes, the farther removed from the people they get — coincidentally, more often than not, these same people are more and more idealized the further removed they are, since the decisions they make affect more and more people. While there aren't as many words in English that encompass the varying levels of honour that people can achieve, the words that do exist help create a superimposed social system on top of existing economic systems; rather than just having money to garner attention and status, the honour one receives from others affects how they perceived and interacted with. The American system resembles the Roman Republic greatly, with some going so far as to say that America is a new Roman empire. While the imperialism of America is debated hotly (at least among the Americans themselves), the political system seems to be heading towards a period in time like the end of the Roman Republic. According to Pascal-Emmanuel Gobry, “the inability of the political and economic system to deliver an outcome that leaves both classes doing well keeps intensifying the conflict. On Tuesday [November 2016] America rejected a patrician and elected a tribune. Let us hope we see some genuinely Gracchian reforms, and let us hope they work this time. Because if not, I fear that, though I might not, my children will one day see a Caesar cross the Potomac.”9 Gobry is referring to now-President Donald Trump, who was not a politician before this, and promised, among other things to “drain the swamp” that was the government. Gobry prays that President Trump is a Gracchian politician, here to shake up the stagnant pool, but says “hope it works this time.” Is he referring to the failure that was the Gracchi brothers’ plans for Rome? If so, why would this time work any better than before?  


Focusing again on Roman change, the Gracchi brothers were a large part of the change in the socio-legal systems in Rome; they attempted reforms to balance the economic classes of Rome, including redistributing land grain to the plebs; some now might even call their work socialistic now. Yet even in their work, the brothers called for not the redistribution to be the main point, instead said that ‘but I [Gaius Gracchus] ask of you, not money, but honour and your good opinion.”10 The honor question still pervaded into the legal system even as it fell. Soon it would be taken over by Caesar and completely redone. After garnering power and honor from his conquests in Gaul and Brittania, Caesar was declared emperor and started a trend of populist-esque emperors: they weren’t anywhere near true populists, as they were still emperors, but they were more in touch with the people than the Republic before them. Caesar started reforms on debt, started religious protections (for those who helped him) and even changed the calendar, earning him honor in the people’s eyes. However, he had his opponents, such as Cicero, who, “when someone remarked that the constellation Lyra would rise next day, remarked: ‘No doubt. It had been ordered to do so’ - implying that even the rising of the stars was something that people had to accept under compulsion.”11 The honor that Caesar was beginning to garner was becoming too much for the Senators of Rome, who now were nowhere near as honorable, and some were even dishonourable in the eyes of the people. The _cursus honorum_ had changed - no longer was simply 5 offices to conquer, but a list of 13 offices starting from the age of 18, and even then the top most spot, emperor, couldn’t be reached by people outside the royal family.12 Honour became much harder to achieve, with so many offices and so many people vying. People began to usurp offices through violent means, often bloodshed and murder, equating the office they took with honor that they would be bestowed with. Since historically the Romans believed in the story of Romulus and Remus, violently fighting over political power seemed to be in their blood. This tradition led to Caesar getting stabbed, and Augustus taking the throne. Augustus, and the emperors beyond him, started a line of no longer associating the honor to the office, but the office to the honor; that is, people began using whatever means necessary to get the offices for themselves, thinking that the office came first and the honor with it, rather than the other way around. The Romans became honor-obsessed, with Cicero even writing a whole book on what he called “obligations,” or _officiis_ , referring to what a person had to do to be honorable in society. He writes to his son Marcus “from [the search for truth] come greatness of soul [honor] and a sense of superiority to worldly conditions.”13 Thus, through the philosophers, honor became the glue that attempted to hold society together, but it ultimately led to their demise. 

**Conclusion**  
Honour was perpetrated as a way for people to live candidly and fulfillingly, but instead only perpetuated class divisions and violence. In the words of Dr. Mitchell Kalpakgian, “The ancient Romans testified that civilization rests upon the cultivation of the virtue of honor,” but is it a foundation worth having?14 If the United States is truly heading in the direction of the Romans, then perhaps we are destined for destruction in the same way. The swamp that President Trump claimed to drain has only got worse in its politicization and polarization: the president himself is in the process of impeachment. If we are also an honour-based society with parallels to the Romans, then the next step is for a Caesar to rise again. In that timeline, Donald Trump was the Gracchi brothers, and with a world war in the talks once again, perhaps a Caesar-esque figure is overdue. However, due to the system being still an honour-based system, then after the American equivalent of Caesar comes the end of the United States as an international powerhouse and as a country.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 1: “Titus Livius (Livy), The History of Rome, Book 1 Benjamin Oliver Foster, Ph.D., Ed.,” Titus Livius (Livy), The History of Rome, Book 1, chapter 8, accessed January 28, 2020, http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Liv.+1.8&redirect=true#note1
> 
> 2: John P. Adams, tran., THE TWELVE TABLES, accessed January 28, 2020, http://www.csun.edu/~hcfll004/12tables.html
> 
> 3: Ibid.
> 
> 4: “HOMER, ILIAD 20,” HOMER, ILIAD BOOK 20 - Theoi Classical Texts Library, accessed January 29, 2020, https://www.theoi.com/Text/HomerIliad20.html
> 
> 5: Thomas Jefferson, “Declaration of Independence: A Transcription,” National Archives and Records Administration (National Archives and Records Administration), accessed January 29, 2020, https://www.archives.gov/founding-docs/declaration-transcript
> 
> 6: “Personality,” George Washington's Mount Vernon, accessed February 5, 2020, https://www.mountvernon.org/library/digitalhistory/digital-encyclopedia/article/personality/
> 
> 7: “Cursus Honorum,” Livius, accessed January 28, 2020, https://www.livius.org/articles/concept/cursus-honorum/
> 
> 8: Jesse Sifuentes, “Authority in Ancient Rome: Auctoritas, Potestas, Imperium, and the Paterfamilias,” Ancient History Encyclopedia (Ancient History Encyclopedia, February 4, 2020),  
> https://www.ancient.eu/article/1472/authority-in-ancient-rome-auctoritas-potestas-impe/
> 
> 9: Pascal-Emmanuel Gobry, “America Now Looks like Rome before the Fall of the Republic,” The Week - All you need to know about everything that matters (The Week, November 10, 2016),  
> https://theweek.com/articles/660915/america-now-looks-like-rome-before-fall-republic
> 
> 10: Gaius Gracchus, “Chapter 3 – Gaius Gracchus: Beware of Politicians,” Latinitium (Latinitium, September 30, 2019), https://www.latinitium.com/2000-years-of-latin-prose/gracchus/#english
> 
> 11: “Caesar's Calendar Reform,” Livius, accessed January 30, 2020, https://www.livius.org/sources/content/plutarch/plutarchs-caesar/caesars-calendar-reform/
> 
> 12: “Cursus Honorum,” Livius, accessed January 28, 2020, https://www.livius.org/articles/concept/cursus-honorum/
> 
> 13: “Book I - Moral Goodness,” LacusCurtius • Cicero - De Officiis I.1‑19, accessed January 30, 2020, http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Cicero/de_Officiis/1A*.html
> 
> 14: Mitchell Kalpakgian, “Honor in Ancient Rome: Why They Loved Greatness of Soul,” Seton Magazine, February 11, 2016, https://www.setonmagazine.com/dad/dr-mitchell-kalpakgian/honor-in-ancient-rome-why-they-loved-greatness-of-soul


	2. Bibliography

**Book:**  
Grant, Michael, trans. London: Penguin Group, 2004.

 **Website:**  
Adams, John P., trans. THE TWELVE TABLES. Accessed February 5, 2020. http://www.csun.edu/~hcfll004/12tables.html.  
“Ancient Roman Statutes : Translation, with Introduction, Commentary, Glossary, and Index.” Avalon Project - Documents in Law, History and Diplomacy. Accessed January 31, 2020. https://avalon.law.yale.edu/ancient/twelve_tables.asp.

“Book I - Moral Goodness.” LacusCurtius • Cicero - De Officiis I.1‑19. Accessed January 30, 2020. http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Cicero/de_Officiis/1A*.html.

“Caesar's Calendar Reform.” Livius. Accessed January 30, 2020. https://www.livius.org/sources/content/plutarch/plutarchs-caesar/caesars-calendar-reform/.  
“Cursus Honorum.” Livius. Accessed February 5, 2020. https://www.livius.org/articles/concept/cursus-honorum/.

Gobry, Pascal-Emmanuel. “America Now Looks like Rome before the Fall of the Republic.” The Week - All you need to know about everything that matters. The Week, November 10, 2016. https://theweek.com/articles/660915/america-now-looks-like-rome-before-fall-republic.

Gracchus, Gaius. “Chapter 3 – Gaius Gracchus: Beware of Politicians.” Latinitium. Latinitium, September 30, 2019. https://www.latinitium.com/2000-years-of-latin-prose/gracchus/#english.

“HOMER, ILIAD 20.” HOMER, ILIAD BOOK 20 - Theoi Classical Texts Library. Accessed January 29, 2020. https://www.theoi.com/Text/HomerIliad20.html.  
Jefferson, Thomas. “Declaration of Independence: A Transcription.” National Archives and Records Administration. National Archives and Records Administration. Accessed January 29, 2020. https://www.archives.gov/founding-docs/declaration-transcript.

Kalpakgian, Mitchell. “Honor in Ancient Rome: Why They Loved Greatness of Soul.” Seton Magazine, February 11, 2016. https://www.setonmagazine.com/dad/dr-mitchell-kalpakgian/honor-in-ancient-rome-why-they-loved-greatness-of-soul.

“Personality.” George Washington's Mount Vernon. Accessed February 5, 2020. https://www.mountvernon.org/library/digitalhistory/digital-encyclopedia/article/personality/.

Sifuentes, Jesse. “Authority in Ancient Rome: Auctoritas, Potestas, Imperium, and the Paterfamilias.” Ancient History Encyclopedia. Ancient History Encyclopedia, February 4, 2020. https://www.ancient.eu/article/1472/authority-in-ancient-rome-auctoritas-potestas-impe/.

“Titus Livius (Livy), The History of Rome, Book 1 Benjamin Oliver Foster, Ph.D., Ed.” Titus Livius (Livy), The History of Rome, Book 1, chapter 8. Accessed January 28, 2020. http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Liv.+1.8&redirect=true#note1.


End file.
